A MAN working at the winter quarters of Chipperfield Circus was flown
to hospital yesterday after his arm was bitten off and swallowed by a tiger.

Nigel Wesson, 38, is believed to have been feeding the animal through
the bars of its cage at the circus's base in Chipping Norton, Oxon, when
it seized his left arm, severing the lower half. He was flown to the John
Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where his left arm was amputated above the
elbow.

Chris Hurley, a paramedic, said: "He had lost a great deal of blood.
He said 'my arm's gone' and I knew straight away there was no point in
trying to find it." An orderly said: "We asked him if he was
allergic to anything and he smiled and replied 'only tigers'."

Staff at the quarters usually use a long stick to put food into the
cages but it is believed that Mr Wesson, who lived at the site and had
worked there for just a few weeks, had put his arm into the cage. Police
said that some of the animals were in circus winter quarters while others
there were used for film work.

Insp Roger Holworth, of Thames Valley Police, said that the four-year-old
Bengal tiger would not be put down.

Last month, a member of the Chipperfield family was mauled by a tiger
in Florida. Richard Chipperfield, 24, is still in hospital after a Bengal
tiger clamped its jaws around his head during a photo-shoot. Graham, his
brother and partner in the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus,
shot the animal. He quit the animal training business shortly afterwards.

A spokesman for Chipperfield Enterprises said: "Our family has
bred tigers for 50 years and, up until January this year, we have never
before had any kind of serious accident with a tiger."

The Chipperfields' treatment of animals was attacked earlier this month
by Animal Defenders, a sister organisation to the National Anti-Vivisection
Society. It claimed that lions and tigers at Chipping Norton spent 90 per
cent of their time in small cages.

6 February 1998: Chipperfield says she was 'stitched up' by workers
3 February 1998: Circus men beat their animals on secret video 9 January
1998: Chipperfield may face charge over shot tiger